While baits in accordance with the invention are effective in trapping crabs as well as lobsters, the baits are discussed herein with particular reference to the lobster fishery.
Lobster fishing is a substantial industry as in 1991, in the State of Maine, the catch was about 30 million pounds with some 3,000 licensed fishermen about half of whom held commercial licenses.
Traps for both lobsters and crabs are baited with trash fish adequate supplies of which are usually freely available to the fishermen but, if not, then bait supplies must be bought from dealers. In practice, each trap is baited with such fish by placing them in coarse nets attached to the traps. At regular intervals, three days or less, weather permitting, the traps are hauled, the catch removed, rebaited and returned to the ocean bottom. It is, of course, necessary that the bait remains effective during such intervals and ideally for as long as a week.
Trap bait also consists of wastes from fish processing plants with the wastes free to the fisherman as, if not thus disposed of, they must, at a cost, be shipped offshore and dumped.
There is, accordingly, a need for a product which will avoid the expense to the fish processor of such shipments and at the same time provide the fishermen with an effective, inexpensive bait which has a useful underwater life longer than raw fish or raw fish wastes, is easier and more convenient to use and has a shelf life such that a supply can be kept on hand for reasonable storage intervals.
That fish wastes make good bait has long been recognized as has been the fact that for its use, the rate of dissemination had to be controlled. At one time, fish wastes were packaged in tins which were to be punctured before being placed in the traps while several proposals have been made to use such wastes in several different ways.
One such proposal required the preparation from such wastes to be in self-opening packages while others were designed to be caught on hooks then to release the essences of the bait with one limiting the maximum fish waste particle size to one eighth inch. Other proposals required that fish wastes be comminuted before being incorporated with other materials in the product. Another proposal required that fish wastes be ground and dried to provide particles similar in size to coarse corn meal and with most of their moisture content removed, the particles were then compacted by means of a hydraulic ram to provide a product which could be cut into wafers for use.